PALESTINE - ISRAEL - JORDAN - SINAI

Off the beaten track tours • Visit sites • Meet locals • Discuss Human Rights & Politics

Biking 2016 – Palestine/Israel/Jordan Day 2

by Fred Schlomka – – Day 2 – 14th June –– 37km. – En Gedi – Neve Zohar –– 91km. Total biked – Pretty uneventful day. I slept fitfully due to the gusty wind, but managed to get up at 3.30am. Took an hour to make coffee and break camp. Sunrise was OK, but I’ve been […]

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Biking 2016 – Palestine/Jordan – Day 1

 – by Fred Schlomka – 13th JuneJerusalem — Almog Junction –  En Gedi54km. I spent the night of the 12th at a friend’s house and awoke at 3am to begin the trip. I drove through almost empty streets and passed through the Mount Scopus Tunnel into the Judean Desert. The ridge opposite was alive with […]

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‘Balance’ in Palestine and Israel

– by Fred Schlomka I received a phone call at 7am this morning from the USA, from a Jewish family seeking a tour of the West Bank. Uppermost in their minds was the notion that this should be a ‘balanced tour’. I asked what they meant by ‘balance’ and received a vague answer about giving […]

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The Occupation is Over – Isn’t it?

By Fred Schlomka –First published in Mondoweiss – The term ‘Occupation’ has become almost a cliché in describing Israel’s presence in the territories conquered in 1967. Within Israeli society, the word is little used anymore ( Hebrew: כיבוש).  Many maps published in Israeli school textbooks no longer show the ‘Green Line’, but through various graphical techniques, […]

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Biking 2016 – Ethiopia Day 3 & 4

– by Fred Schlomka – Day 4 & 5 • 30th & 31st JanuaryAddis Ababa, Alem Tena – ZiwayTotal biked – 96km Quite a day for the first bike ride in Africa. I was driven by Sheme out of Addis Ababa to Debre Zeit, also known as Bishoftu. Apparently the name was changed after the […]

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Biking 2016 – Ethiopia Day 2 & 3

– by Fred Schlomka –  – Day 2 & 3 • 28th & 29th JanuaryAddis Ababa, Ethiopia I go for dinner with a group of Rastas from Europe and Australia who are here for the Rastafarian Tour. Ethiopia is the spiritual homeland of the Rasta religion and my colleague Jos has been developing pilgrimage tours […]

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Biking 2016 – Ethiopia – Day 1

– by Fred Schlomka –Day 1 & 227th & 28th JanuaryTel Aviv – Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Up early and off to the airport. Sunita was a sweetheart and drove me at 5.30am. The packing had been a bit frantic the day before but I managed to do a partial dismantle of the bike and cut […]

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Closer to God . . .

 By Heather Munro –  ‘Regal’ is how I describe many of the Chasidic women I met, especially the older ones. The first night of Sukkos in a rebbe’s sukkah, the rebbetzin sat at the head of the women’s table. Her make-up was subtle and understated, highlighting her fine bone structure. Her posture was erect, proud, […]

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Oslo? Happy Birthday!

By Yahav Zohar – 17th Sept, 2015. – The Oslo accords were 22 years old this week, and what a sad, dejected birthday it was. Not only was there no party, there weren’t even the generalized well wishes produced by neglected FaceBook accounts to mark such occasions. Googling ‘Oslo anniversary 2015’ got me only two […]

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Al-Aqsa & Temple Mount

By Yahav Zohar – Jews say God threw a rock into the void and by the circular ripples emanating from this contact created the world. That rock, the Foundation Stone, still lies at the center of the world. From it, underground, extend hidden channels that carry heavenly plenty to the ends of the earth, giving […]

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Dustcloud

By Yahav Zohar – September 2015 – For the last few days fine dust has replaced much of the air in  parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel-Palestine. Media has referred to it as a dust-storm, and responded mostly with photos of pedestrians in surgical masks, set against the yellow-grey apocalyptic sky-scape. Photo: NASA But […]

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Thou Shalt Not Kill: Israel’s Hilltop Youth

First published by Al Jezeera, July 2015 In late July 2015, an arson attack on a family home in the Palestinian village of Duma, in the West Bank, resulted in the killing of three members of the Dawabshe family, the youngest of whom, Ali, was only 18 months old. The firebombing also caused seven-year-old Ahmed […]

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